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When Lamine Yamal drives past multiple defenders and sets up a goal, either for Spain or for Barcelona, the point of his supreme talent is driven home even more when he smiles.
That's because Lamine Yamal wears braces.
It's not exactly a look you see on many players at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, but Lamine Yamal's mouth has an extra shine to it.
He'd shine brightly enough without the braces, of course. With them? It just adds to his nature as the best young player in world football.
MORE: Eloy Room leads Curacao to astounding World Cup history
Why does Lamine Yamal wear braces?
Simply put: His teeth have needed them for the past couple years.
Lamine Yamal was going viral for having red and blue braces about two years ago, and the teeth-adjusting tools are still in his mouth at the 2026 World Cup.
They aren't some kind of fashion statement, but rather a reality that many people have as they move through their teenage years -- he's still just 18.
Lamine Yamal is just a bit more high profile than the rest of the world's braces wearers.
MORE: Jeremy Doku being criticized for his paternity leave comments
The braces may be coming off
Lamine Yamal has teased that the World Cup may be the last we see of the braces:
When will you get your braces off?
🚨🎙️| Lamine Yamal: "After the World Cup, I won’t have them anymore." pic.twitter.com/ZTzRHCPMh1— Access Yamal (@AccessYamal) June 7, 2026
They almost certainly will have given him a superb smile.
More FIFA World Cup news:
- USA, England can't actually play on July 4th
- Why Norway brought 600 pounds of salmon to the World Cup
- Cape Verde pulls off one of craziest results in World Cup history
- Pink cleats are everywhere at the World Cup
- How Folarin Balogun's mom being too pregnant to fly led him to USMNT
Billy Heyen
Billy Heyen is a freelance writer with The Sporting News. He is a 2019 graduate of Syracuse University who spent his senior year following Jim Boeheim's basketball team around the country. His reporting work has also included extensive high school sports coverage at the Sandusky Register and Rochester Democrat & Chronicle. Adventures in sports writing have also led to in-person coverage of the Buffalo Sabres, Cleveland Guardians, U.S. men's national soccer team and a variety of minor league baseball stories. When people ask if he's seen a movie, the answer is usually "No, I was probably watching sports." Even away from sports, his main hobby is running (much slower than any athlete in these pages).
Source: Sporting News
